10,000 southwest children at risk of significant harm, report says

DOCUMENTS from Family and Community Services from June reveal southwest Sydney has the state’s second highest number of children at significant risk of harm.

More than 10,000 children are at risk of significant harm in southwest Sydney.

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MORE than 10,000 southwest Sydney children are allegedly at risk of significant personal harm.

June 2017 documents from Family and Community Services reveal southwest Sydney has the state’s second highest number of children at significant risk of harm — 10,428 in total.

Only the Hunter and New England region has a higher number of at risk children — 15,900 in total.

Children are classified as being at risk of significant harm if their circumstances significantly jeopardise their safety, welfare or wellbeing.

The classification means the child’s situation is sufficiently serious to warrant the intervention of an authority such as FACS regardless of the child’s family’s consent.

However, just 31 per cent of at-risk children in southwest Sydney had a face-to-face consultation with a FACS caseworker in the year up to March 2017.

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The South West Sydney Local Health District funds 209 caseworkers to handle the children in question, which equates to 50 children per caseworker.

Just 199 caseworkers are currently employed in the district, leaving 10 positions vacant.

Bankstown state Labor MP and opposition family and community spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk said budget cuts had a devastating effect on child welfare in NSW.

“We are continuing to see rates of between 60 and 70 per cent of children at risk of harm never seeing a caseworker,” Ms Mihailuk said.

“There are alarming rates that highlight a dysfunctional child protection system.”

Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward was contacted for comment.

THE STATISTICS

• Almost five per cent of southwest Sydney children are currently at risk of significant harm.
• The 2016 Census revealed 226,508 children live in southwest Sydney.
• Census figures reveal 47,048 children aged 0-17 live in Fairfield.
• Census figures reveal 55,307 children aged 0-17 live in Liverpool.
• Census figures reveal 83,972 children aged 0-17 live in Canterbury Bankstown.
• Census figures reveal 40,181 children aged 0-17 live in Campbelltown.
• The number of children currently at risk of significant harm in the South West Sydney Local Health District is 10,428.
• In 2013 the number of children at risk of significant harm in the Metro South West district was 12,040 and 21 per cent of them saw a caseworker face-to-face.
• In 2015 the number of children at risk of significant harm in the South West Sydney Local Health District was 8834, and 21 per cent of them saw a caseworker face-to-face.